SK summons Japan envoy over PM's history remarks on history

SEOUL -- South Korea summoned Tokyo's ambassador in Seoul on Thursday to protest at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's defense of visits by senior officials and lawmakers to a shrine seen by Japan's neighbors as a symbol of wartime aggression.

China and South Korea chastised Japan after more than 160 lawmakers visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine this week. That followed a symbolic offering made by Abe to the shrine and a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso and two other ministers.

Such visits, a regular occurrence during religious festivals, have long angered Asian nations where the scars of Japan's past militarism still run deep.

“We don't understand why Japanese society closes its eyes and covers its ears about pain and damage caused by its past invasion and colonial rule, while it treats honesty and trust as important values,” Kim Kyou-hyun, South Korea's vice foreign minister, told the ambassador, according to the ministry.

The recurring flare-ups in tensions between Japan, South Korea and China have been a source of concern for Washington, which is keen to secure cooperation from Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing in reining in reclusive North Korea.

Thursday's summons in Seoul came a day after conservative Abe defended the latest visits to Yasukuni at a parliamentary panel in Tokyo.

The shrine honors Japan's war dead, as well as 14 leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal. It is seen by Koreans as a reminder of Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910-1945.

China, which also suffered under Japanese occupation, also takes offence when Japanese leaders pay their respects at the shrine.

Burden of History

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Thursday that Tokyo did not want the Yasukuni issue to affect ties with its neighbors.

“Our basic stance is, as I have been saying, our nation has caused a great pain and suffering to many nations, especially people in Asian nations, in the war,” he said.

“Japanese governments have accepted these historical facts sincerely and have expressed our deepest remorse and heartfelt apology, and have expressed the condolences for all the victims ... This is the same for the Abe government.”

“I think in any country it is natural to express respect to the people who sacrificed their lives for the nation,” Suga told reporters in Tokyo.